I started life as a journalist and political operative. I'm a consultant and the author of "Reinventing You" and "Stand Out." I also teach for Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. You can download my free 42-page Stand Out Self-Assessment Workbook at http://www.dorieclark.com/join.

Are Your Employees Engaged?

Want to know how committed your employees are? The real test of employee engagement, says serial entrepreneur and author Kevin Kruse, is “discretionary effort.” Connecting through the Miami airport last October, Kruse – author of the new Employee Engagement 2.0: How to Motivate Your Team for High Performance saw it firsthand: “The US Airways ticketing terminal was all decorated for Halloween, and you looked down at all the others, and none of them were. Maybe there was an order that every ticket counter for US Airways had to be decorated for Halloween, but I don’t think so. I think employees at this location were engaged, and said, wouldn’t it be cool to decorate?”

How can you tell if your employees are engaged? Companies can start with a simple survey (big firms may want to hire consultants, but even a free SurveyMonkey questionnaire will do). “I like to ask questions about pride,” says Kruse. “When there’s a job opening at work, do you tell friends and family about it? Do you feel your colleagues are performing at a high level of quality and service? They’re proxy questions, but what you’ll see is discretionary effort in the kinds of areas that the average employee wouldn’t do.”

The insights can be revealing, but too many firms fail to share that data with employees. “The secret is to push it down to frontline managers and ensure they’re measured on it,” says Kruse, a fellow Forbes contributor. “As a manager, you should get your scores, share them with your direct reports, and they’ll tell you how to improve. If we’re not doing a good enough job on communication, ask them what they want – a weekly huddle, or more face-to-face meetings? Let [your frontline managers] decide what they want, and then implement it and hold them accountable for that implementation.”

Companies who fail to prioritize employee engagement often cite financial reasons – but Kruse says that’s a mistake. “It doesn’t cost a lot of money,” he says. “People will feel engaged with their boss and their company if there’s a feeling of growth, appreciation, and trust.” Growth may include promotions or raises, says Kruse, but there are also other considerations: “You don’t have to get promoted to feel like you’re being challenged and advancing on the right career path.” Similarly, recognition isn’t just about cash bonuses; sometimes a handwritten thank you note or public praise from the boss can be just as meaningful. And trust, says Kruse, is based on an employee’s belief that his or her leadership team is headed in the right direction: “I know there’s a plan, and I fit in.”

Successful employee engagement initiatives don’t just offload all the work to the HR department, says Kruse: “The keys to unlocking engagement are in the hands of frontline leaders. Are they having conversations with their direct reports about how they’re going to get their goals, including their career goals, accomplished? Are they asking, how can I help you do that?” And if leaders set the right workplace climate, employees may just dive in. After all, says Kruse, “The individual employee has a role in it, too. It’s not just the manager’s job to make them engaged at work. You can engage others on your team; you don’t need a title to lead.”

The dividends, he says, can be major: “Your emotions at work, whether good or bad, spill over into other areas of our lives. If you’re more engaged at work, the better spouse you’re going to be at home, and you’ll be a better parent to your kids, a better friend, and physically healthier. It’s not just about the business benefits. The real ‘why’ of leadership and engagement is that you’ll be happier and healthier outside of work, as well.”

What’s your company doing to increase employee engagement? Do you feel engaged at work? Why or why not?

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Engagement seems to be the latest fad among employers. My company (Fortune 100) spends millions and millions of $$ on engagement surveys and focus groups. Whereas the medical increase has more than wiped out any raises and I personally had to take my son to a pubic dental clinic because I could not afford to get his teeth pulled privately. WAKE-UP corporate America you get what you PAY for!!!

I presume from your message you’re not convinced employee engagement is worth spending money on. But given the bottom-line results (employee retention, and the customer retention that arises from better employee interactions), I’d argue the rise of employee engagement is a good thing. Of course, it is a waste if all the company is doing is asking questions and then not following through on what they find out.

I agree that companies have to go beyond surveying. Too many don’t and the result is dissatisfaction like that expressed by meis3b. In your article, Kevin Kruse suggested that survey results be shared and pushed down to the supervisor level, holding supervisors accountable for improvement. I heartily agree that this is critical to success. My research shows that the relationship between the supervisor and his or her direct reports has the most impact on engagement.

I would add that it is also critical to work on engagement at the organizational level. If corporate actions demonstrate that employees aren’t valued it is a huge (but not impossible) obstacle for the individual supervisor to overcome.

Agree that leadership commitment and manager relationships are critical pieces in the engagement puzzle. No doubt all the rest of an employee experience impacts overall engagement as well, including benefits. But I’d step back a bit further. An organization that is clear on their purpose and brand promise (why do we exist), and bringing that to life inside the organization with and through it’s employees is a critical first step to engagement. People want to be fairly compensated, AND they want to do meaninful work. Reinforcing that purpose and brand promise delivery through recognition practices and programs can be a powerful frame or container for an organization to really shift culture, drive shared value and meaning and – discretionary effort. There are many examples of companies who have framed their existance and what employees do to contribute to that in powerful ways, with powerful results. Thanks for the post and insights.

In the trenches, engagement is seen as a way to cut benefits, salary, perks, jobs, etc. and give HR a metric to show that we the employees are happy about it. I know that there are enlightened companies that are truly engaged with their employees and understand that a “happy” workforce is a productive workforce.

The point is that one cannot have their quality of life eroded by a company that is making record profits and be “happy” about it. Loyalty is a two way street. The company needs to be loyal to it’s employees to receive loyalty in return.

Kevin makes some very good points and making a fully engaged workforce a high priority makes a lot of sense. Stephen Covey in his book “Principle-Centered Leadership” wrote that the possible performance gain was 500%.

My own experience in creating several fully engaged workforces bears out Covey’s statement. But it is not about surveys. It is about getting with your producers from every level management level.

Attaining such a workforce can only be achieved if management fully (100%) meets the five basic needs every person has: to be heard, to be respected, and to have competence, autonomy, and relatedness (purpose). Doing so makes employees so thankful for being treated so well that they repay such kindness by unleashing everything they have on their work even trying after work to figure out how to do a better job. Applying 100% of their brainpower on their work including treating every other person with the same high level of respect they were given is what creates the huge performance gains.

How to meet these needs and treat employees so well? Management must provide more than enough opportunity for each employee to voice their complaints, suggestions and questions and respond to those to the satisfaction or better of the originator and any other employee affected.

It is management’s responsibility to support the work of employees through training, tools, material, information, direction, discipline, planning and the like. The only way to make these meet the highest standards is to listen and respond to the people who use this support and live with it every minute of their day. When support does not meet the highest standards, it does not meet the needs of employees. Giving them lots of orders does not meet their need for autonomy and besides, almost every person is capable of deciding what to do, when to do it, and how to do it given great support.

Unfortunately, for most companies the elephant in the room is their continued use of the traditional top-down command and control approach to managing people. Sadly, this approach by its nature tends to demotivate, demoralize, and disengage employees. I had to transition away from top-down in order to achieve Covey’s gains and once I did the results of serving employee needs rather than issuing orders to them were truly amazing to behold.

Global studies validate that increased employee engagement levels have a direct impact on the bottom line. That said, engagement levels are at approx 40% because of economic realities. A major issue will be that as the economy recovers, 60% of the workforce will be looking for a new job. Of course, the best employees will be the first to leave. It does not cost a lot of money to increase the level of engagement, and the downside risk will cost far more. There are tools and techniques available today that can reverse the trend but it requires commitment from senior management who need to look at the longer-term risks they are facing by ignoring the problem.

Hi Dorie, Your article gives an quite resourceful insight into the issue of employee engagement. I agree that it is not always the responsibility of the HR department or the management to successfully engage the employees but however they have a very critical role to play which can further encourage other ways to encourage employee engagement. Please visit our Blog on the issue and share your views with us. http://goo.gl/tgVlZ